Cairo (Islam Times) - Sami Annan, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces assured that a civilian state is “an issue of national security” that must be insisted upon, and expressed readiness for dialogue with any political faction or persons, as long as it's in the interests of the country.

Islam Times: Annan -restated in a meeting with a number of thinkers, writers that lasted for about 5 hours the insistence of the military junta to hand over the reins of the country to elected civilian authority, according to free and fair elections at the earliest opportunity.

He said: “Egypt's greatest need in the current period is national compromise and the people are the only ones able to achieve this through the voting box which will be used in a way that will make the world talk about its integrity”. He expressed his hope to cancel the word “sectarian conflict” from the dictionary of the Arabic language through the unity of the social constitution in all its spectrums.

Annan said in the meeting which was attended by the members of the junta, the generals: Mohammed Attar, Mamdouh Shahin, Ismail Osman and Mohammed Amin, that the military is doing its job now as deputy for the people not as an alternative to the former regime, stressing that Egypt is heading forward and will not return back again.